Hand telephone



May 12, 1942. I o. A. SHANNYI 2,283,098

HAND TELEPHONE Filed June 2 1959 Z97 u a g ro LINE L I v v I 2 l TOOTHERZ'UB-SET 50m:

INVENTOR 0.14. SHA/VN By Mum a. M

Arron/Ev Pa earedtlsiy 12.1942

' ii AND TELEPHONE v Oscar A. Shaun, Bayside, N. Y., assignor to BellTelephone Laboratories,

York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application June 20, 1939, SerialNo. 280,045

1 Claim. (Cl. 179-103) This invention relates to telephone apparatus andmore particularly to hand telephones having a plurality of telephoneinstruments, such as a receiver and a transmitter, mounted upon a commonhandle.

In some cases, a plurality of telephone sets may be mounted in proximityin a room, or upon a single table, desk or the like and difliculty maybe experienced by the subscriber or attendant in discerning which of thesets is being called at any particular time because the several sets mayhave ringers of the same tone, or differences in the tone of severalringers may notbe clearly apparent. In-other cases, for errample in asick room, the loud ringing tone of the usual ringer may be undesirable.

One object of this invention is to produce a visual signal at atelephone set being called, the

signal being clearly visible from substantially The lamp may beconnected to the ringing cir-- cult of the telephone set and utilizedeither as the sole calling signal or as a signal auxiliary to theringer, When the lamp is energized, the entire handset handle, or themajor portion thereof, glows and there is thus produced a clear signalvisible at a distance and from all directions.

The foregoing and other features of this invention will be understoodmore clearly and fully from the following detailed description withreference to the accompanying drawing, in which: Fig. 1 is a side viewmainly in section of a hand telephone illustrative of one embodiment ofthis invention; and

Fig. 2 is a circuit diagram showing one manner of energizing the signallamp.

Referring now to the drawing, the hand telephone shown in Fig. 1comprises a handle ID of transparent or translucent materiaLsuch aspolymerized methyl methacrylate suitably plasticized, having recesses atits end for accommodating a receiver H and a transmitter l2, which maybe of standard construction. The receiver and transmitter are held inpositionby caps l3 threaded to the handle. The handle may have embeddedtherein a pair of conductors l4 and is As shown clearlyin Fig. 1, thehandle it is provided also with an elongated recess or boreIncorporated, New

l5 whichextends inwardly to or beyond the center of the handle. Mountedwithin the recess or bore l5 at the inner-end thereof is a signal lampl6, which is insertable and removable through the recess or bore l5 andmay be held in place by a translucent or transparent plug l1 fitted inthe bore or recess. The signal lamp may comprise an enclosing vesselhaving therein an ionizable atmosphere and a pair of substantiallyhemispherical glow electrodes l8 connected to respective leading-inconductors l9. Although the signal lamp l6 shown is of the glow type, itwill be understood, of course, that other types of lamps, for examplefilamentary, may be employed.

As illustrated in Fig. 2, the receiver II and transmitter |2 areconnected to three of the conductors-of the cord 30 and may be connectedto the line terminals 20 and 2| in ways known in the art. One of theconductors I9 is connected to the conductor I l common to thetransmitter and receiver and through one of the cord conductors 30 and awinding of the induction coil 22 to the line terminal 2|. The otherconductor I9 is connected to the other line terminal 20 through one ofthe cord conductors 30 and a contact switch 23. The contact switch 23may be the usual ringer controlling contact in the mounting of atelephone set, such as shown in Patent 2,096,046, granted October 19,1937, to John J. Kuhn and George R. Lum, or an auxiliary contact. Ineither case, the contact switch is associated with the plunger of themounting so that it opens when the hand telephone is removed from themounting and closes when the hand telephone is placed on the mounting.

A ringer 24, having a condenser 25 in series therewith, is bridgedacross the terminals 20 and 2| as shown.

When a ringing current is supplied to the terminals 20 and 2| overthe"telephone line, the ringer 24 will be actuated to produce an audiblesignal. Simultaneously, the lamp l6 will be energized and, inasmuch asthe handle I0 is of transparent or translucent material, a clear visualsignal visible from all angles and at a distance will be produced. Thesubscriber or attendant, then, may readily discern that the telephoneset at which the handset is located, is being called and can easilydistinguish this set from others which may be on the same table or deskas or in the vicinity of the set being called. When the handset at thetelephone called is removed from the mounting, the contact switch I isopened and the energizing circuit likewise -is opened so that the lampis extinguished.

It will be understood, of course, that the ringer 24 may be omitted fromthe set and the lamp l6 utilized as the sole signal to indicate that thetelephone set is being called.. It-- will be understood also thatvarious modifications may be spirit of this invention as defined in theap pended claim. I

what is claimed is:

Telephone apparatus comprising a hand telephone including a handle oftranslucent matemade in the specific embodiment shown and describedwithout departing from the scope and rial, said handle having therein anelongated bore extending from one end to the central portion thereof,the outer end of said bore being cord-extending into said handle throughsaid:

open end of said bore and having its conductors connected to said lampand said instruments.

OSCAR A. SHANN.

